My Mum's Top Tip: Fried Shallots, Garlic and Ginger Toppings

One of the things I told myself I must do when I flew back to Singapore this summer, is learning my mum's secrets to great, actually the best imo, home-cooked food. Just watching her in the kitchen, I've picked up so much. But I'm starting from the basics, and these are the 3 basic toppings/ flavour boosters that my mum keeps on standby beside the stove: Fried shallots, fried ginger, and fried garlic, and of course, the resulting byproduct-- fragrant flavour-infused oils.

Fried Shallots and Shallot Oil

Ingredients

shallots (do more at once, you can use them on everything)

groundnut/palm/coconut oil/ghee (evoo is not the best option here because you're frying here)

pinch of sea salt

Method

1. Peel shallots and slice thinly, and break apart into little rings by tossing with your fingers gently. Dab dry first, then toss with the salt, which helps them crisp up better (do this at the last moment before you fry them or they might sweat).

2. Heat 2 inches of oil (I didn't give an amount because you'll use less if you're using a wok because of the round bottom) to medium, you should see really tiny bubbles. If it's too low, it'd be useless; if it's too high, the shallots will burn.

Beautiful glittering (golden, because of wrong camera settings) shallots

3. Add shallots to the heated oil. They should bubble mildly. You can then turn up the heat a little. Let cook about 8-9 min till the edges get a bit brown.

4. Ok now PAY ATTENTION. From this point onwards, you can go from beautiful golden crispy caramelised shallots to a burnt mess really easily. Once more than half of the shallots are golden, remove from heat and let them continue to sizzle in the residual heat of the oil until they are perfectly golden brown.

If you wait until they are already golden brown before removing from the heat, they will end up burning.

I speak humbly from personal experience.

5. Drain the fried shallots, they crisp up as they cool. DO NOT discard that fragrant flavourful oil. You can store the shallots in the oil too, but still drain and let cool or else the shallots will keep cooking in the hot oil.

I know it sounds like a lot of oil, but you are not eating all that oil! It's used sparingly as finishing drizzles like toasted sesame oil for that extra oomph. If you're stingy with the oil, you end up stewing the shallots and you end up with sticky (and in fact, oilier) caramelised shallots (which isn't such a bad thing because they still taste yummy but it's no longer the multi-purpose condiment you're after).

I speak humbly from personal experience, again.

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It's the same method for fried garlic and fried ginger.

Fried Garlic and Garlic Oil

Ingredients

garlic, peeled, chopped roughly

groundnut/palm/coconut oil/ghee

Method

Same as above, but garlic burns a lot quicker. Remove from heat once you smell that garlicky aroma. They are done right when they are golden, not brown!

My mum's stir-fried pea shoots with crispy garlic.

The garlic is very good on top of vegetables, with (or without) oyster sauce.

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Fried Ginger and Ginger Oil

Ingredients

ginger

oil

groundnut/palm/coconut oil/ghee + some sesame oil (this combination of sesame oil and ginger is very popular in chinese confinement dishes. I've never had a baby but all the same, I'm in love with anything that uses these 2 together- the aroma is enough to make me hungry.)

Method

Same as above, but my mum will smash the ginger first so they fall apart into fibrous threads, then go ahead to thinly slice/julienne them. They are done right when they are golden.

My mum's stir-fried fish with spring onions, topped with the fried ginger.

The ginger is particularly good for fish as it counters any fishy smells.

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One of these three will usually be used to top simply cooked dishes, her final flourish to anything from stir-fries to soups to steamed to braised dishes to just plain rice congee, or she might use that fragrant oil as the finishing drizzle for instant yumminess.

Easiest vegetable side dish, and one of the first few I did when I first started cooking.

Blanched/Steamed Bok Choy drizzled with shallot oil

Spiced (Pine)apple Charlotte with Coconut Cream

I don't usually crave desserts but I was watching James Martin make an apple charlotte the other day on the Great British Food Revival (reruns). He's really the man to go for desserts I think, no fear whatsoever of fat or carbs or all things 'bad', though honestly, I'd say this one is a pretty healthy dessert. Apple charlotte is a classic British dessert, made with butter-soaked bread, moulded in a ramekin and filled with apples. It's actually pretty simple to make and uses up leftover bread which is a plus.

I was thinking about my trip to Chiang Mai again and the lovely Thai people (and the elephants) who lead simple, happy lives and appreciate what nature has to offer. I didn't even see apples- the most 'basic' of fruits imo- anywhere in the menu or markets. On the other hand, they had lots of local seasonal PINEapples. I'm back to Singapore now where I can easily get a Japanese Fuji apple or a New Zealand Gala apple, but hey, if I'm staying in the tropics where I can get some beautiful tropical pineapples, why stick to apples flown in from around the world?

Hence, my take on the British classic. I find I don't need extra sugar because pineapples are so intensely sweet, unlike a bramley apple filling.

Spiced Pineapple Charlotte with Coconut Cream

serves 4 (you'll need 4 ramekins)

Ingredients

1/2 a pineapple, chopped into small pieces (depends on size of pineapple actually. just have enough to fill up your ramekins.)

4-6 slices of bread (I used a soft sourdough sandwich bread)

100g salted (grassfed) butter, melted

big pinch of cinnamon (or a cinnamon stick)

1 star anise

To serve

coconut cream (the top creamy bit on top of your coconut milk)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Add a tbsp of butter and cook the pineapple with the spices gently for about 5-10 min or till tender. (I think adding a pinch of cornflour mixed with some water to make a slurry to get a thicker jam-like consistency would be helpful here too, though I didn't do it and the charlotte didn't suffer.)

2. Remove the crust from the bread and slice into thin rectangles. Brush with melted butter, making sure there are no unbuttered spots or, just dip the bread fingers into the melted butter.

4. Arrange the buttered bread fingers around the edges of the ramekin (I used a large oven-safe teacup), overalapping to make sure there are no gaps.

5. Fill the well with the pineapple filling (remove star anise!) , then cover with the remaining bread fingers, packing down the mixture tightly. You can even cover it with a plate and weigh it down.

6. Bake the charlottes for about 25 minutes, till golden brown. Allow to cool before turning out onto a shallow dish and then serve with the coconut cream poured generously around the pudding.

This was divine, just 4 key ingredients, and hardly any effort at all. The outside is crisp, slightly salty and very buttery, and the inside, a sweet gooey mess. Apple charlotte is usually served with cream or warm custard, but keeping to my tropical theme, I used coconut cream, and its distinct fragrance and richness paired wonderfully with the spiced pineapple. I know its not the best-looking pudding you can get, what with my lousy patchwork skills and teacup mould and hence that warped dome shape, but taste and texture-wise it's all good, and like my friend used to say, it all goes into the stomach anyway;)

Thai Glass Noodle Salad (YUM Woon Sen)

After all that spice, a cool refreshing salad is called for. I made som tum, a green papaya salad, at the cooking class, but thought to share this glass noodle salad instead, because the ingredients are a little less obscure and so, more re-creatable. I've done it slightly different from the Thai teacher, adjusted according to my own presumptuous interpretations of versions of this salad that I've had before and liked.

Thai Glass Noodle Salad (Yum Woon Sen)

serves 2

Ingredients

80g glass noodles (otherwise known as cellophane noodles, or mung bean threads)

3 shallots, thinly sliced

2-3 thai bird's eye chilli, chopped finely

handful of bean sprouts

1/2 a carrot, julienned

handful of Thai basil leaves/cilantro/ a mix (mint would be nice too)

1 tbsp dried shrimp

for dressing

1-2 tbsp fish sauce

1-2 tbsp unrefined cane/palm sugar

1-2 tbsp lime juice

Method

1. Soak glass noodles in cold water for 5 min till soft. Now, let soak in boiling water for 1-2 min to cook it (I add the dried shrimps here too, so they soften a bit, and the noodles absorb a little of the seafood flavour). I also scald the vegetables so they don't taste that raw. Refresh all in cold water.

2. Meanwhile, combine ingredients for dressing. Adjust to taste! You might like it sweeter or tangier or saltier. I also like to add some of the shallots and chilli here to cut the sharpness and also flavour the dressing so the shallot-y spicy flavour can coat all the noodles better later.

3. Pour dressing over all the ingredients and toss.

This couldn't be simpler, but it definitely doesn't compromise on taste nor texture. You've got spicy, sweet, sour and salty, and the smooth slippery glass noodles against the fresh crunchy vegetables. And with the weather so hot (not just in Singapore. I've heard it's really hot in London too, and it's practically a heatwave in the US), whatever gives us all an excuse to not start the stove or oven is good. YUM woon sen (:

The Ultimate Guide to Thai Curries, and I-dare-you Jungle Curry

As I mentioned in my previous post, we went for a Thai cookery lesson in Chiang Mai. I learnt how to do the Thai favourites like pad thai (although I'm not really happy with the results. I'll share when I perfect it.) , tom yum soup, the thai desserts like mango/young coconut with sticky rice, the stir-fries, and of course, thai curries. Although we only learnt to make one each, I learnt that thai curries aren't really that different from one another. It works kind of like a mix and match. You start out with the same base, and based on the type of chillies or spices (or addition of coconut milk, later), end up with all the different Thai curry pastes. Brilliant.

I told you I'm a nerd when it comes to food, so I did a mind map/chart once I got home.

Legend: Red- red curry, Green- green curry, Yellow- yellow curry, Blue- phanang curry, Purple- Jungle curry, Orange- Masaman curry

And now that we can make all the Thai curries we want, why settle for the standard green or red? I went for Jungle Curry, the spiciest curry of them all. I love spicy, but you should see my face when the teacher told me to put in 20 thai chilli padis (birds' eye chillies), which was in addition to handfuls of dried red chillies and chilli paste. Apparently, the Thais would use 60.

Thai Jungle Curry (Kaeng Pa)

serves 2

Ingredients

For curry paste (makes about 2 tbsp)

20 fresh Thai birds' eye chillies (red or green), chopped

5 dried red big chillies (not that spicy), boiled first then chopped

5 dried red chillies (spicy kind), chopped

3-4 shallots, chopped

5-6 cloves garlic (just smash and leave skin on if using the small Asian kinds, but peel if using the big western kinds.)

1 tbsp chopped galangal

1 lemongrass, pale bottom part only, chopped

1/2 tbsp fermented shrimp paste (kind of like belachan)

1 tsp chopped kaffir lime peel

1 coriander root (or substitute with twice the amount of coriander stems)

1 tsp fresh turmeric (or substitute with dried)

1 Thai ginseng (I don't know how you can substitute this, so just leave it out if you've got no choice)

For making curry

1 stalk of kaffir lime leaves (it comes in doubles), sliced very thinly

2 tbsp fish sauce

2-2 tsp sugar (unrefined cane sugar)

1 stalk fresh green peppercorns

300g chicken, sliced (originally wild boar. use whatever meat you like, or you can even make it vegetarian)

2 handfuls of vegetables (we had a mixture of Thai eggplants, pea eggplants, carrots and long beans, but use whatever you like)

handful of Thai holy basil leaves

1 big red chilli (non spicy. it's just for extra colour), deseeded and chopped

2 tbsp oil (unrefined palm or coconut oil)

Proud of my chopping and pounding skills

Method

1. Pound (or blend) all the ingredients for the curry paste. We pounded.

The teacher said a Thai man will look at how well a woman pounds her curry paste to decide if she's wife material. I think I'll give a Thai husband a miss.

2. Add the oil to a wok or pot, and add the curry paste. Fry over low heat till you can smell the aroma (or in the case of the jungle curry, the smell of all that chilli hits your nostrils and you start choking).

3. Add some water to stop burning, then the chicken, keep stirring till cooked.

4. Increase the heat, and add the vegetables, kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce and sugar bring to a boil and then let it simmer until everything is cooked. You may want to add water/reduce the curry till you reach your desired consistency.

5. Finish off with the basil leaves and red chilli.

Like all Thai cuisine, this is a perfect balance of sweet, spicy, sour and salty, although I would say this tips towards the spicy just that tiny bit more. Even though I was sweating buckets, I really loved the complexity of flavours and this was definitely very more-ish. Note though: This is one strong curry. You need to have this with rice (and lots of tissue paper at the side.)

Land of a Thousand Smiles and two Thousand Chillies (Chiang Mai)

Follow the elephants.

The natives (or at least the native elephant trainers) say so.

They're intriguing-looking creatures aren't they? Giant bodies, huge ears, snake-like noses, wrinkled skin and bristly hairs , but those kind knowing eyes! They remind me of the wise old women of a tribe. I've heard stories of the elephants fleeing from the deadly tsunami before it struck Asia in 2004. They're so clever that way, a sort of instinctive knowledge. I like to think it's because they're in tune with nature, so they know about the land that they live on. That was something I saw a lot of in the Thai people.

I went to Chiangmai, away from the more bustling Bangkok city. There, the places are still pretty undeveloped and makor parts of the land are still being used for farming or taken up by indigenous villages. It was a beautiful trip- we went off the beaten track, one day on rented ATVs and another on foot, through the jungles, villages, and farms. There was a simple kind of peace and quiet in the air, but of course, disturbed sometimes by the mosquitoes and sudden bursts of tropical rain.

Sacrificing safety for photos of the beautiful village scenery

I know for sure the eggs were free-range and pastured!

The Thais in this part of Thailand lead very simple lives, working hard, but just enough, not the same way people in big cities slave 18h a day in the office, and they're such happy people! I am think that that's the way we should be approaching life and health and all that-- just enjoying whatever we're offered. Gosh I sound old. But really, just in terms of food, the Thais really live off the land. You wouldn't find strawberries or even apples anywhere on the menu, because it wasn't available, simple as that. What they did have was lots of watermelon, pineapples, papaya, dragonfruit, jackfruit, rambutans, coconut of course... (some of these probably sound really exotic and foreign, but growing up in Singapore, they're familiar friends. I should do a post just on tropical fruits one day.)

Watermelon and pineapple, served at the end of almost all our meals

I've seen lychees before, but never ones SO BIG.

Back to the food. Thai cuisine is definitely NOT lacking in variety, flavour and colour despite being very very local and seasonal, in fact, it's quite the opposite. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the pad thai,

This was the best pad thai I've ever eaten,

cost maybe 30 pence, and took less than 30s to cook.

TIP: Unlike in London, the best food you can have in most of Southeast Asia are usually from street vendors or small coffeeshops.

som tum (shredded green papaya salad),

green and red curries,

This curry was stewed inside a coconut

But there are also some dishes specific to the Northern Thai region which are lesser known but really ought to be better known, like the sai oua, a grilled pork sausage mixed with Thai spices and herbs,

mu yor, a steamed pork sausage that has an irresistible bouncy texture,

These are meatballs, made with that same bouncy pork mixture.

khao soi, fried crispy egg noodles, pickled cabbage, shallots and lime in a soup/curry-like coconut sauce

khaeng hang -le, a stewed pork curry which unlike more common Thai curries, uses no coconut milk, but tamarind juice, peanuts and chillies instead

kaep mu, deep fried crispy pork rinds (think crackling. then think, mountain of crackling.),

which is often served with nam prik num, a fresh, slightly tangy and salty green chilli paste.

It's also served just as a dip for vegetables (new alternative to satay peanut sauce?)

The most intriguing dish I had though, was on the last day, when we decided to shelve out in a northern thai restaurant recommended by the locals (but honestly, it was still nowhere near expensive. We paid about 7 singdollars/ 3.5 british pounds for a very generous and very good meal. It really is a poor foodie's heaven in Chiangmai.) This was a whole fish, deboned, stuffed with pork, and fried. The fish skin was crispy and the filling, succulent and juicy, and everything went perfectly with the sweet-sour chilli dip. It was even laid on an edible taro basket. I can honestly say, "It was so good I ate the whole dish up."

If you used to think Thai food is all about the chillies, well-- it still is (I think I ate more chillies in that 5 day trip than I did in the past year), but it's really a lot more than that. There's spice, but there's also a wonderful balance of flavours and textures and smells and more. Most importantly, it's about fresh ingredients from the land, cooked from scratch. Speaking of cooking, we also went for a Thai cooking lesson taught by the locals, but I'll save the tips I picked up for another post, I've been going on for too long. korp-khun-khrap (:

Stir-fried Green Beans in Satay Peanut Sauce

I've just returned from Chiang Mai, Thailand. I know I kind of just disappeared without a word, without any post or something, but it's been a crazy week. I've not uploaded my photos from the trip yet, but I don't want to go so long without any news. Is it just me who unduly frets about missing her post schedules and coming back to find no one interested in reading her blog anymore? Anyway, here's a recipe follow-up on the Singapore satay post that I've wanted to post the day after, but got caught up with the this this-thats of life and friends and travel.

When I went to all that effort to make satay sauce that day, I of course made extra. The plan was to have satay at my whim and fancy without too much prep, but it was just too tempting I finished half of it easily, dipping cucumbers in it. I wanted to make satay beehoon (rice vermicelli) too, but I didn't have enough for a substantial gravy. So I used the last of it in a summer stirfry with the seasonal green beans. In Singapore, I would try it with long beans also, or you could even use any other kind of vegetables you like, preferably something with a bit of a fresh crunch and spring/summer juiciness to it.

Stir-fried Green Beans in Satay Peanut Sauce

serves 2-4

Ingredients

2 large handfuls of green beans, trimmed and cut into pinky-finger-long (2") pieces

1 large banana shallot, or 2-3 small shallots, sliced thinly

1 red chilli, sliced thinly (or more to taste)

3-4 heaped tbsp satay peanut sauce

1 tbsp soy sauce (traditionally brewed/fermented)

juice of half a lime

1-2 tbsp coconut oil (or you can use olive oil or unrefined palm oil or groundnut oil)

Method

1. In a wok or frying pan, heat the oil. Add the shallots and stir-fry till you smell their aroma.

2. Add the chillies and green beans and stirfry until they kind of shrivel and become tender, but are still crisp.

3. Add 3-4 tbsp of water, the satay peanut sauce and soy sauce and continue stir-frying and mixing well until the water evaporates, leaving behind a thick sauce that should coat all the green beans nicely.

4. Remove from heat, add the squeeze of lime to finish off, and toss well one last time.

Sweet, spicy, salty and zesty all at once, with the aroma of roasted peanuts-- that's the way to go to dress up your 'boring, old' green beans!

I will be updating about my trip (especially the food) of Chiang Mai in my next post, once I get my photos, thoughts and stomach (I think I ate about 50 chillies in all) sorted out!